Phillis makes his shots count
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United High School graduate Mitch Phillis lived up to his nickname as the Dark Horse.
In two months, Phillis went from an unknown to winning the 2026 Pop-A-Shot National Championship on Friday night.
“Unbelievable,” he said. “I can’t believe it.”
Phillis stunned the crowd at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, by beating the top two finishers from last season and upsetting the top seed in the final televised live on ESPN2.
“I thought I could win,” Phillis “(Thursday) we had a little warmup and seeding and I didn’t play too good. I was too excited and had to calm down. I had to come back and do some interviews today and had us playing some games. I was starting to feel pretty good. You could seen them saying, ‘Now he’s here.'”
Phillis saw the national championship on ESPN a couple of years ago and thought he was better than those guys.
He forgot about it until he was recovering at home after donating a kidney to his father, Mike, on April 2. Looking for something to do, he got out his old Pop-A-Shot -- a popular arcade game with miniature basketball and hoops.
The 40-year-old Phillis upset top-seeded James Isham of Wyandotte, Michigan, in the best-of-five championship match with scores of 170-180, 167-154, 178-172 and 164-137.
The key was in the second game when he trailed 139-130 with Isham close to taking a 2-0 lead and got a ball stuck in the basket, which forced the game to restart from the beginning.
Phillis took advantage by winning three straight games for the title. He made 79 of 80 shots in one of the games.
“I said to him, it didn’t work out,” Phillis said. “That was a little unlucky.”
It was the second time that game was restarted. The first time Phillis was ahead.
Phillis said they were told if there wasn’t enough time in the television broadcast, games would not be restarted. But there was, which was good for Phillis.
“I wasn’t playing my best, but I did good enough,” he said.
In the opening round, the seventh-seeded Phillis topped 10th-seeded Gary “The Glove” Preston of Denver, Colorado, by scores of 166-138, 163-150. They were the top two finishers in the Chicago Super Qualifier last month.
All matches were decided by best-of-three series except for the final. There were 12 national qualifiers with the top four seeds receiving first-round byes.
Then Phillis rallied in his next two matches -- beating defending national runner-up Michael Pascow of Denver, Colorado, 144-168, 167-144, 161-142, in the quarterfinal and defending national champion Scott Setzke of Garden City, Mich., 155-171, 157-146, 171-147, in the semifinal.
“When you lost one, it was on to the next game,” Phillis said “I’ve got to win this one or it’s over.”
Phillis, who lives in North Canton, had a rapid rise through the virtual ranks. He qualified for the Chicago Super Qualifier on his scores through his play at Sandy Springs Brewing Company in Minerva.
He won both of his live events, including the national championship.
Phillis wasn’t even sure about competing this year and his wife urged him to give it a try.
He finished as the national champion with 10 family members in attendance and an interview with Mr. Pop, Pop-A-Shot’s mascot.
“The guy is running the puppet and he is looking right at you,” Phillis said. “I don’t want to talk, I wanted to play.”